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Famous Role Models
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Hamza Yusuf
Hamza Yusuf was born as Mark Hanson in Washington State and raised in Northern California in a Greek Orthodox family, the son of an academic father, veteran of World War II, and activist mother. At the age of 17, in 1977, Hanson converted to Islam in Santa Barbara, California, after having a near-death experience in a car accident which led him to read the Qur'an and eventually become a Muslim.
He subsequently traveled to the Muslim world and studied for ten years in the U. A. E., Saudi Arabia, as well as North and West Africa. He received teaching licenses in various Islamic subjects from several well-known scholars in various countries. After ten years of studies abroad, he returned to the USA and took degrees in Religious Studies and Health Care. He has traveled all over the world giving talks on Islam. He also founded Zaytuna Institute which has established an international reputation for presenting a classical picture of Islam in the West and which is dedicated to the revival of traditional study methods and the sciences of Islam.
Shaykh Hamza is the first American lecturer to teach in Morocco's prestigious and oldest University, the Karaouine in Fes. In addition, he has translated into modern English several classical Arabic traditional texts and poems. Shaykh Hamza currently resides in Northern California with his wife and five children. |
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Shirin Ebadi
Shirin Ebadi born in 1947 is an Iranian lawyer, human rights activist and founder of Children's Rights Support Association in Iran. On December 10, 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially women and children rights. She is the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to receive the prize.
Ebadi was born in Hamadan, Iran. Her father, Mohammad Ali Ebadi, was the city's chief notary public and professor of commercial law. The family moved to Tehran in 1948.
Ebadi was admitted to the law department, University of Tehran in 1965 and upon graduation in 1969 passed the qualification exams to become a judge. After a six-month internship period, she officially started her judging career in March 1970. She continued her studies in University of Tehran in the meanwhile and received a master's degree in law in 1971. In 1975, she became the first woman to preside over a legislative court.
Ebadi was demoted to a secretary at the branch where she previously presided, following the Iranian revolution in 1979, when conservative clerics insisted that women are prohibited to become judges in Islam. After protests by her and other female judges, they were assigned to a slightly higher position of a "law expert." She eventually requested early retirement as the situation remained unchanged.
As her applications were repeatedly rejected, Ebadi was not able to practice as a lawyer until 1993, while she already had a law office permit. She used this free time to write books and many articles in Iranian periodicals, which made her known widely.
Make sure to check the Nobel website about her award.
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Dr. Muhammad Yunus
Professor Muhammad Yunus is the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006. As founder of the Grameen Movement, Dr. Yunus is a revolutionary pioneer in Microfinance. His ideas couple capitalism with social responsibility and have changed the face of rural economic and social development.
A Fulbright Scholar at Vanderbilt University, Professor Yunus received his Ph.D. in Economics in 1969. Later that year, he became an assistant professor of Economics at Middle Tennessee State University, before returning to Bangladesh where he joined the Economics Department at Chittagong University.
The UN secretary general appointed Professor Yunus to the International Advisory Group for the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing from 1993 to 1995. Professor Yunus has also served on the Global Commission of Women's Health (1993-1995), the Advisory Council for Sustainable Economic Development (1993-present), and the UN Expert Group on Women and Finance. He also serves as the chair of the Policy Advisory Group (PAG) of Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP). Yunus has also served on many committees and commissions dealing with education, population, health, disaster prevention, banking, and development programs. He is currently on the boards of many international organizations such as Grameen Foundation.
Click here to view Dr. Yunus’ Nobel ceremony speech. Or click here to view a video of The Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony 2006. Finally click here to view an interview of Dr. Yunus. |
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Amr Khaled
Amr Khaled was born in Alexandria, Egypt. He graduated from Cairo University in 1988 with a degree in Accounting. In 2001, he received a diploma from the Islamic Studies Institute.
He began preaching in 1990 in mosques while working as an accountant. He switched to full-time preaching in 1998, using Satellite TV (his lectures can be seen on the IQRA channel on NILESAT) as his main vehicle. His lectures are popular, and are distributed over the Internet as well as on different other media.
He is noted for his use of common, understandable language and friendly approach. He often cracks jokes during his lectures. Amr’s unique and new way of preaching attracted millions of youth throughout the Arab world, making him a superstar.
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Moustapha Akkad
Akkad was born in Aleppo, Syria. In the early 1950s, his father, then a customs officer, gave him $200 and a copy of the Quran before he left for the United States to study film direction and production at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Akkad spent a further three years studying for a Master's degree at the University of Southern California (USC), where he met the legendary director Sam Peckinpah. Peckinpah became Akkad's mentor in Hollywood and hired him as a consultant for a film about the Algerian revolution that never made it to the big screen, but he continued to encourage him until he found a job as a producer at CBS.
In 1976, he produced and directed Mohammad, Messenger of God (released as The Message in 1977 in the United States), starring Anthony Quinn and Irene Papas. Akkad faced resistance from Hollywood to making a film about the origins of Islam and had to go outside the United States to raise the production money for the film.
While creating Muhammad, Messenger of God, he consulted Islamic clerics and tried to be respectful toward Islam and its views on portraying Muhammad (pbuh). He saw the film as a way to bridge the gap between the Western and Islamic world.
In a tragic twist of fate, Akkad, and his 34-year-old daughter Rima Akkad Monla, were killed in the 2005 terrorist bombings in Amman, Jordan. They were both in the lobby at the Grand Hyatt. His daughter died instantly, and Akkad died of his injuries two days later in a hospital. |
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Sami Yusuf
Sami Yusuf was born in 1980. He was born into a musical family of Azeri origin and thus music played an integral part in his life. Sami’s initial training came from his father, who is an internationally renowned composer, poet, and a multitalented musician.
Sami learnt to play several instruments at a very young age and gradually began to show a keen interest in singing and composing. At the age of eighteen, he obtained a scholarship to study composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London, one of the world most prestigious music institutions.
Sami has been composing from a very young age and his beautiful voice is supplemented by his extensive knowledge of notes and harmonies. He has also a good understanding of music theory and the Middle Eastern modes (or Maqams).
Indeed, it is rare to find a person who has all these talents. Sami is also a devout practicing Muslim who sees songs as a means of promoting the message of Islam and encouraging the youth to be proud of their religion and identity.
Two of my favorite songs from Sami are: Al Mu’allim and Munajat.
Sami’s website is: www.samiyusuf.com
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Naguib Mahfouz
Born in Cairo in 1911, Naguib Mahfouz began writing when he was seventeen. His first novel was published in 1939 and ten more were written before the Egyptian Revolution of July 1952, when he stopped writing for several years. One novel was republished in 1953, however, and the appearance of the Cairo Triology, Bayn al Qasrayn, Qasr al Shawq, Sukkariya (Between-the-Palaces, Palace of Longing, Sugarhouse) in 1957 made him famous throughout the Arab world as a depictor of traditional urban life. With The Children of Gebelawi (1959), he began writing again, in a new vein that frequently concealed political judgements under allegory and symbolism. Works of this second period include the novels, The Thief and the Dogs (1961), Autumn Quail (1962), Small Talk on the Nile (1966), and Miramar (1967), as well as several collections of short stories.
Until 1972, Mahfouz was employed as a civil servant, first in the Ministry of Mortmain Endowments, then as Director of Censorship in the Bureau of Art, as Director of the Foundation for the Support of the Cinema, and, finally, as consultant on Cultural Affairs to the Ministry of Culture. The years since his retirement from the Egyptian bureaucracy have seen an outburst of further creativity, much of it experimental. He is the author of no fewer than thirty novels, more than a hundred short stories, and more than two hundred articles. Half of his novels have been made into films which have circulated throughout the Arabic-speaking world. In Egypt, each new publication is regarded as a major cultural event and his name is inevitably among the first mentioned in any literary discussion from Gibraltar to the Gulf.
Naguib Mahfouz died on August 30, 2006. |
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Zaid Shakir
Zaid Shakir is amongst the most respected and influential Islamic scholars in the West. As an American Muslim who came of age during the civil rights struggles, he has brought both sensitivity about race and poverty issues and scholarly discipline to his faith-based work. Born in Berkeley, California, he accepted Islam in 1977 while serving in the United States Air Force. He obtained a BA with honors in International Relations at American University in Washington D.C. and later earned his MA in Political Science at Rutgers University. While at Rutgers, he co-founded a local Islamic center, Masjid al-Huda. Then he founded the Tri-State Muslim Education Initiative, and the Connecticut Muslim Coordinating Committee. As Imam of Masjid al-Islam from 1988 to 1994 he spear-headed a community renewal and grassroots anti-drug effort, and also taught political science and Arabic at Southern Connecticut State University. He then left for Syria to pursue his studies in the traditional Islamic sciences. For seven years in Syria, and briefly in Morocco, he immersed himself in an intense study of Arabic, Islamic law, Quranic studies, and spirituality with some of the top Muslim scholars of our age. In 2001, he returned to Connecticut, serving again as the Imam of Masjid al-Islam, and writing and speaking frequently on a host of issues. That same year, his translation from Arabic into English of The Heirs of the Prophets was published by Starlatch Press.
In 2003, he moved to Hayward, California to serve as a scholar-in-residence and lecturer at Zaytuna Institute, where he now teaches courses on Arabic, Islamic law, history, and Islamic spirituality. In 2005, Zaytuna Institute published Scattered Pictures, an anthology of diverse essays penned by Zaid Shakir.
He is a frequent speaker at local and national Muslim events and has emerged as one of the nation’s top Islamic scholars and a voice of conscience for American Muslims and non-Muslims alike. |
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Hicham El Guerrouj
Born in 1974 in Berkane, Morocco is a retired Moroccan middle distance runner. He is the world record holder for the 1,500 metres (3:26.00), the mile (3:43.13) and 2,000 metres (4:44.79), and has been nicknamed "King of the Mile".
It is said that he became interested in racing as a child after being inspired by countryman Said Aouita's win in the 5,000 meters during the 1984 Olympics.
His sporting career is marked by numerous recognitions such as the award to humanitarian effort from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which he received in 1996. He is also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. El Guerrouj was named best athlete of the year by the IAAF in 2001 and 2002 after remaining unbeaten in more than 20 races and thus becoming the first man to win athlete of the year titles in consecutive years. Also, in 2002, he was chosen, together with the British athlete Paula Radcliffe, best athlete of the year by the prestigious athletics journal Track and Field News. In 2003, he was also top of the world athletics list and was elected as a member of the IAAF Athletes Committee.
On September 7, 2004, Hicham El Guerrouj was decorated with the "Cordon de Commandeur" by King Mohammed VI of Morocco. In the same year, he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Awards.
He is a member of the International Olympic Committee Athletes's Commission. |
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Moez Masoud
Moez Masoud was brought up in the American schools of Kuwait and Egypt as a 4.0 GPA student until he took up a lifestyle of excessive partying, the kind that took the lives of three of his close friends. After facing two near-death experiences himself, his previously nonchalant, or even rebellious attitude towards religion changed drastically as his heart opened up to the Quran and his soul was overcome by Gods presence. He began to ponder the Qurans meanings, and was fascinated by the high he would get upon feeling that his Maker was talking to him. Alongside, he began to share his tremendous experience with those around him, and was soon after regularly invited to speak about his new-found realizations.
Upon graduating from University, Moez was invited to carry out night (taraweeh) prayers one Ramadan in the US. When he returned to Cairo, he founded TGF, a successful advertising agency. A year later, the ART Arab Radio & Television- contacted him and that was the start of his TV debut success, “Parables in the Quran”. Since then, he has been around countries like the US, Malaysia, and the UK as an honorary guest giving talks, leading workshops and youth camps, as well as making TV & radio show appearances. Throughout, he has tried to remind himself and others that the Prophet Muhammad - upon whom be God's blessings and peace - invites humanity to a relationship with God that is founded upon our love for Him, and that earning His love is the human being's greatest success.
Currently a student of Islamic sciences under renowned traditional scholars, Moez also works as an advertising freelancer in Egypt where he lives with his wife and son. His most recent TV show, “Stairway to Paradise”, airs worldwide on ART international and Iqraa.
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